Genesis 6:13

And God said unto Noah, The end . קֵץ (from Hophal of קָצַץ , to cut off) that which is cut off, the end of a time ( Genesis 4:3 ) or of a space ( Isaiah 37:24 ); specially the end or destruction of a people ( Ezekiel 7:2 ; Amos 8:2 ), in which sense it is to be here understood (Gesenius, Rosenmüller). The rendering which regards ketz as, like τε ì λος —the completion, consummation, fullness of a thing (here of human fleshliness or wickedness), and the following clause as epexegetic of the present (Bush), though admissible in respect of Scriptural usage (cf. Jeremiah 51:13 ; Ecclesiastes 12:13 ; Romans 10:4 ) and contextual harmony, is scarcely so obvious; while a third, that the end spoken of is the issue to which the moral corruption of the world was inevitably tending (Keil, Lange), does not materially differ from the first. Of all flesh , I .e. of the human race, of course with the exception of Noah and his family, which "teaches us to beware of applying an inflexible literality to such terms as all , when used in the sense of ordinary conversation" (Murphy). Is come before me. Literally, before my face . Not "a me constitutus est" (Gesenius), "is decreed before my throne" (Kalisch); but, "is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized" (Murphy), with perhaps a glance at the circumstance that man's ruin had not been sought by God, but, as it were, had thrust itself upon his notice as a thing that could no longer be delayed. If בָּא לְפָנַי = the similar expression בָּא אֶל , which, when applied to rumors, signifies to reach the ear (cf. Genesis 18:21 ; Exodus 3:9 ; 1 Kings 2:1-46 : 28; Esther 9:11 ), it may likewise indicate the closeness or near approach of the impending calamity. For the earth is filled with violence through them. More correctly, " from their faces ; a facie eorum" (Vulgate). That is, "the flood of wickedness which comes up before God's face goes out from their face" in the sense of being perpetrated openly (Lange), and "by their conscious agency" (Alford). And, behold, I will destroy them . Literally, and behold me destroying them . The verb is the same as is translated "corrupt' in Genesis 6:12 , q.v; as if to convey the idea of fitting retribution (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:17 : ει ̓ ì τις το Ì ν ναο Ì ν του ͂ θεου ͂ δθει ì ρει φθερει ͂ του ͂ τον ο ̔ θεο ì ς ; Revelation 11:18 : και Ì διαφθει ͂ ραι του Ì ς διαφθει ì ροντας τη Ì ν γη ͂ ν ). Whether this destruction which was threatened against the antediluvian sinners ex tended to the loss of their souls throughout eternity may be reasoned ( pro and con) from other Scriptures, but cannot be determined from this place, which refers solely to the-extinction of their bodily lives. With the earth . Not from the earth (Samaritan), or on the earth (Syriac, Rosenmüller), or even the earth, "thus identifying the earth with its inhabitants" (Bush), but, together with the earth (Kalisch, Keil, Alford; cf. Genesis 9:11 ; και Ì τη Ì ν γη ͂ ν , LXX .). The universality of representation which characterizes this section ( Genesis 6:9-13 ) is regarded by Davidson, Colenso, and others as contradictory of Genesis 6:5 , which depicts the corruption as only human, and limits the destruction to the race of man. But as the two accounts belong to different subdivisions of the book, they cannot properly be viewed as contradictory.